History Main / Ubermensch

* Judge Holden from CormacMcCarthy's ''BloodMeridian'' is a deconstruction of the concept, showing just how frightening an Ubermensch can be if acting as the antagonist of a story.

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* Judge Holden from CormacMcCarthy's ''BloodMeridian'' Creator/CormacMcCarthy's ''Literature/BloodMeridian'' is a deconstruction of the concept, showing just how frightening an Ubermensch can be if acting as the antagonist of a story.

** And later, Simon grows to be like Kamina, and the role of the Last Man goes to Rossiu ([[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan and later is snapped out of it]]) and later the Anti-Spiral ([[NietzscheWannabe who didn't get snapped out of it]]). It also helps that Spiral Energy is basically the Will to Power, thus any powerful spiral/human with enough "[[MemeticMutation belief in the he that believes in himself]]" can reach Ubermensch-status.

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** And later, Simon grows to be like Kamina, and the role of the Last Man goes to Rossiu ([[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan and later is snapped out of it]]) and later the Anti-Spiral ([[NietzscheWannabe ([[StrawNihilist who didn't get snapped out of it]]). It also helps that Spiral Energy is basically the Will to Power, thus any powerful spiral/human with enough "[[MemeticMutation belief in the he that believes in himself]]" can reach Ubermensch-status.

** A rare heroic example is Batman. He has his own code and in most adaptations only [[ThouShaltNotKill one rule]]. ''Batman: Year One'' informs us that Gotham was once a place where law and order had given up (read: traditional morality has collapsed), and Batman has repeatedly recruited and mentored fledgling superheros (converting others to his ideals). By contrast, the Joker is a NietzscheWannabe. An agent of chaos even in more campy versions, he has no code, no purpose in society and no sense of hierarchy, so he'll kill just about anyone for no reason. Spending a month ''acquainted'' to him will drive you insane, if poor Harley is any indication. This is actually the key focus of Film/TheDarkKnightSaga.

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** A rare heroic example is Batman. He has his own code and in most adaptations only [[ThouShaltNotKill one rule]]. ''Batman: Year One'' informs us that Gotham was once a place where law and order had given up (read: traditional morality has collapsed), and Batman has repeatedly recruited and mentored fledgling superheros (converting others to his ideals). By contrast, the Joker is a NietzscheWannabe.StrawNihilist. An agent of chaos even in more campy versions, he has no code, no purpose in society and no sense of hierarchy, so he'll kill just about anyone for no reason. Spending a month ''acquainted'' to him will drive you insane, if poor Harley is any indication. This is actually the key focus of Film/TheDarkKnightSaga.

* ''Anime/RingingBell'' has Wolf as the Ubermensch and the sheep as the Last Man. Chirin starts out as a member of the Last Man and tries to become Ubermensch under Wolf's tutelage. [[spoiler: He fails, and becomes a NietzscheWannabe instead]].

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* ''Anime/RingingBell'' has Wolf as the Ubermensch and the sheep as the Last Man. Chirin starts out as a member of the Last Man and tries to become Ubermensch under Wolf's tutelage. [[spoiler: He fails, and becomes a NietzscheWannabe straw nihilist instead]].

* John Kramer aka Jigsaw from the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' films. Despite suffering from brain cancer and being dissatisfied with the rest of society, he overcame his suicidal despair and created his own radical moral code focusing on the savouring of life, seeing modern civilization as making everyone waste themselves in hedonism and setting himself the goal of rejuvenating humanity's survival instincts. And his method is not nice, either, he tests his subjects' personal willpower by subjecting them to {{ironic hell}}s that require severe self-sacrifice to escape lest they die. While most people will see his method as murder despite his claims on the contrary, he is still able to influence the tortured survivors around him to his ideals, even beyond the grave, although Amanda became a NietzscheWannabe and Hoffman became a monster. It helps that his character is based on Gilles Deleuze's philosophy, which is a lot like Nietzsche's.

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* John Kramer aka Jigsaw from the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' films. Despite suffering from brain cancer and being dissatisfied with the rest of society, he overcame his suicidal despair and created his own radical moral code focusing on the savouring of life, seeing modern civilization as making everyone waste themselves in hedonism and setting himself the goal of rejuvenating humanity's survival instincts. And his method is not nice, either, he tests his subjects' personal willpower by subjecting them to {{ironic hell}}s that require severe self-sacrifice to escape lest they die. While most people will see his method as murder despite his claims on the contrary, he is still able to influence the tortured survivors around him to his ideals, even beyond the grave, although Amanda became a NietzscheWannabe StrawNihilist and Hoffman became a monster. It helps that his character is based on Gilles Deleuze's philosophy, which is a lot like Nietzsche's.

* Winston Smith in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' is the Last Man in Europe, due to his primary motivation being hedonism with freedom and enlightenment added in, yet still doesn't carry enough Will to Power to stick to his individuality [[spoiler:and overcome {{Room 101}}]]. [[spoiler: Heck, he even chooses to love Big Brother because it's the greater of two pleasures, which is against the Ubermensch concept]]. But the actual "Ubermensch" in the book is disputed. Maybe it's Big Brother (who ironically is the God of the book), maybe it's the Party as a whole with their BlueAndOrangeMorality and their obsession with the Will To Power, but Inner Party member O'Brien in particular, as an individual, is less of a Ubermensch and more of a NietzscheWannabe, since he believes that the only vision of the future is "a boot stamping on a human face forever".* The vampire artist Mikhail Efimov in Creator/OlegDivov 's ''Literature/NightWatcher'' has some pretensions about this, being a more literal version of NietzscheWannabe; he claims that "proper" vampires (the ones that drink blood and receive, among other things, dramatically enhanced senses - and, at least according to Mikhail, emotions and understanding), or the Nocturnals as he likes to call them, are so far above mere humans in every regard as to be justified in doing whatever they want to them, as human lives are so drab and pathetic compared to those of Nocturnals as to be "less than a parody". He also has some things to say about the worldview and way of life of perfect beings, which seems pretty close to this trope. Mikhail tries to position Igor Dolinsky, [[TheFettered a vampire that has successfully resisted his bloodthirst]], as the Last Man, but Dolinsky is quick to point out that the Nocturnals tend to degenerate into mindless animals within a few years if they even live that long; eventually Mikhail realizes that Igor is right and turns himself in for an experimental treatment, though he doesn't abandon his rhetoric to the end, [[ShutUpHannibal leading to]] [[BreakTheHaughty some humiliating moments]] at the hands of the local vampire hunters.

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* Winston Smith in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' is the Last Man in Europe, due to his primary motivation being hedonism with freedom and enlightenment added in, yet still doesn't carry enough Will to Power to stick to his individuality [[spoiler:and overcome {{Room 101}}]]. [[spoiler: Heck, he even chooses to love Big Brother because it's the greater of two pleasures, which is against the Ubermensch concept]]. But the actual "Ubermensch" in the book is disputed. Maybe it's Big Brother (who ironically is the God of the book), maybe it's the Party as a whole with their BlueAndOrangeMorality and their obsession with the Will To Power, but Inner Party member O'Brien in particular, as an individual, is less of a Ubermensch and more of a NietzscheWannabe, StrawNihilist, since he believes that the only vision of the future is "a boot stamping on a human face forever".* The vampire artist Mikhail Efimov in Creator/OlegDivov 's ''Literature/NightWatcher'' has some pretensions about this, being a more literal version of NietzscheWannabe; StrawNihilist; he claims that "proper" vampires (the ones that drink blood and receive, among other things, dramatically enhanced senses - and, at least according to Mikhail, emotions and understanding), or the Nocturnals as he likes to call them, are so far above mere humans in every regard as to be justified in doing whatever they want to them, as human lives are so drab and pathetic compared to those of Nocturnals as to be "less than a parody". He also has some things to say about the worldview and way of life of perfect beings, which seems pretty close to this trope. Mikhail tries to position Igor Dolinsky, [[TheFettered a vampire that has successfully resisted his bloodthirst]], as the Last Man, but Dolinsky is quick to point out that the Nocturnals tend to degenerate into mindless animals within a few years if they even live that long; eventually Mikhail realizes that Igor is right and turns himself in for an experimental treatment, though he doesn't abandon his rhetoric to the end, [[ShutUpHannibal leading to]] [[BreakTheHaughty some humiliating moments]] at the hands of the local vampire hunters.

** For that matter, all three Reasons are representative of the trope: the Reason of Shijima (presented by Hikawa) is just the most [[NietzscheWannabe nihilistic one]] (naturally; the organization sponsoring it is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Assembly of Nihilo]]. But the Reason of Musubi and the Reason of Yosuga also present their own revolutionary ideologies for the [[DarkMessiah Demifiend]] (the player character) to support.

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** For that matter, all three Reasons are representative of the trope: the Reason of Shijima (presented by Hikawa) is just the most [[NietzscheWannabe [[StrawNihilist nihilistic one]] (naturally; the organization sponsoring it is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the Assembly of Nihilo]]. But the Reason of Musubi and the Reason of Yosuga also present their own revolutionary ideologies for the [[DarkMessiah Demifiend]] (the player character) to support.

* Emperor Mateus Palamecia in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII''. He is utterly convinced of his right to rule over all around him, and, being a SorcerousOverlord, has the power to back it up. The heroes ''killing him'' merely results in LikeABadassOutOfHell, [[spoiler: and the remake shows that the "light" half of his soul tried to overthrow the game's version of Heaven.]] In the crossover game ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'', he plans to overthrow the Gods and is insulted when Garland compares him to [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Kefka]], who he dismisses as a "[[NietzscheWannabe gibbering nihilist]]".

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* Emperor Mateus Palamecia in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII''. He is utterly convinced of his right to rule over all around him, and, being a SorcerousOverlord, has the power to back it up. The heroes ''killing him'' merely results in LikeABadassOutOfHell, him [[HellHasNewManagement taking over Hell]], [[spoiler: and the remake shows that the "light" half of his soul tried to overthrow the game's version of Heaven.]] In the crossover game ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'', he plans to overthrow the Gods and is insulted when Garland compares him to [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI Kefka]], who he dismisses as a "[[NietzscheWannabe "[[StrawNihilist gibbering nihilist]]".

* ''Comicbook/{{Miracleman}}'': MiraclemanHe was actually developed by an ex-[[MadScientist Nazi scientist]], as it happens.* Magneto from ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'', as written by Chris Claremont. He actually describes himself as one in a supplemental story.

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* ''Comicbook/{{Miracleman}}'': ''ComicBook/{{Miracleman}}'': MiraclemanHe was actually developed by an ex-[[MadScientist Nazi scientist]], ex-Nazi scientist, as it happens.* Magneto from ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'', ''Comicbook/XMen'', as written by Chris Claremont. He actually describes himself as one in a supplemental story.

In 1883, FriedrichNietzsche published a book called ''Also Sprach Zarathustra'' in which he elaborated his ethical ideal, the ''Übermensch.'' The name came from the concept about ordinary humanity believing there would be no morals or reasons to live if there was no Other to define morality and reason. Transcending this illusion makes one an "over-man".

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In 1883, FriedrichNietzsche Creator/FriedrichNietzsche published a book called ''Also Sprach Zarathustra'' in which he elaborated his ethical ideal, the ''Übermensch.'' The name came from the concept about ordinary humanity believing there would be no morals or reasons to live if there was no Other to define morality and reason. Transcending this illusion makes one an "over-man".

* Raskolnikov from FyodorDostoevsky's ''Literature/CrimeAndPunishment'' is a VillainProtagonist who wants to be an Ubermensch, and spends most of the book wondering if he is one or not. It is perhaps worth noting that the novel was published before ''Also sprach Zarathustra'' and that Raskolnikov considers Napoleon to be the archetypical Ubermensch, showing that the idea at the very least predates Nietzsche.

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* Raskolnikov from FyodorDostoevsky's Creator/FyodorDostoevsky's ''Literature/CrimeAndPunishment'' is a VillainProtagonist who wants to be an Ubermensch, and spends most of the book wondering if he is one or not. It is perhaps worth noting that the novel was published before ''Also sprach Zarathustra'' and that Raskolnikov considers Napoleon to be the archetypical Ubermensch, showing that the idea at the very least predates Nietzsche.

* ''Literature/TheBible'': {{Alternative Character Interpretation}}s of Satan also include the Ubermensch archetype. One such Satan is the Satan from ''ParadiseLost''. After all, tis better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. Probably.

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* ''Literature/TheBible'': {{Alternative Character Interpretation}}s of Satan also include the Ubermensch archetype. One such Satan is the Satan from ''ParadiseLost''.''Literature/ParadiseLost''. After all, tis better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven. Probably.

* Gabe from ''NextToNormal'' has an inhuman charisma, makes his own rules and pretty much gets what he wants [[spoiler: despite, or because of being, DeadAllAlong]]. Natalie is pretty much The Last Man no matter what she does. ''[[{{Lampshade Hanging}} Superboy And The Invisible Girl]]'', indeed.

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* Gabe from ''NextToNormal'' ''Theatre/NextToNormal'' has an inhuman charisma, makes his own rules and pretty much gets what he wants [[spoiler: despite, or because of being, DeadAllAlong]]. Natalie is pretty much The Last Man no matter what she does. ''[[{{Lampshade Hanging}} Superboy And The Invisible Girl]]'', indeed.

* ''Anime/ChirinNoSuzu'' has Wolf as the Ubermensch and the sheep as the Last Man. Chirin starts out as a member of the Last Man and tries to become Ubermensch under Wolf's tutelage. [[spoiler: He fails, and becomes a NietzscheWannabe instead]].

[[folder:Film]][[folder:Film - Animation]]* ''Anime/RingingBell'' has Wolf as the Ubermensch and the sheep as the Last Man. Chirin starts out as a member of the Last Man and tries to become Ubermensch under Wolf's tutelage. [[spoiler: He fails, and becomes a NietzscheWannabe instead]].[[/folder]]

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